A former hospital pharmacist was arrested for allegedly “tampering and causing the destruction of” 570 vials of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The pharmacist admitted to intentionally removing the viles from a pharmacy refrigerator rendering 570 doses unusable.
The unnamed suspect was charged with First Degree Recklessly Endangering Safety, Adultering a Prescription Drug, and Criminal Damage to Property.
Grafton, Wisconsin police announced the arrest on Thursday. Police were called to Advocate Aurora Health Hospital shortly after the former pharmacist admitted that the vials had been left out overnight with the knowledge that the 10 doses in each vial would be destroyed.
Patients were given doses from the spoiled viles, which health officials said pose no harm and can be considered “useless” inoculations.
“The value of the spoiled doses was estimated to be between $8,000 and $11,000,” according to a Grafton Police Department news release.
Grafton detectives indicate that the individual knew the spoiled vaccinations would be useless and that people who received the vaccinations would think they had been vaccinated against the virus when in fact they were not.
The hospital initially attributed the incident, which happened on Christmas Day, to unintentional human error, but deeper investigation led to a confession from the pharmacist.
We immediately launched an internal review and were led to believe this was caused by inadvertent human error. The individual in question today acknowledged that they intentionally removed the vaccine from refrigeration.
We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic. We are more than disappointed that this individual’s actions will result in a delay of more than 500 people receiving their vaccine. This was a violation of our core values, and the individual is no longer employed by us.
Something seems very suspicious to me about the pharmacist’s confession.
